Protective Measures

by Jessica Arman

history of the lockdown. Taryn was lucky she only had two friends, but that was bad enough. One Spout consisted of a mystery phial, the contents of which are injected into the victim.

  “Damn, she's gonna hate us when this is over,” Laiken said.

  “Nah, it’ll be fine, she’s a tough girl. She just has to keep her composure in front of everyone here,” Ryker said.

  “I will be the one giving the punishment for the no dismissal because Mrs. Garn has a bad arm,” Alloy said.

  Taryn braced her feet and kept her eyes on the audience—Laiken and Ryker in particular—while Alloy wound up for the hit. Taryn didn’t know where it was going to land, but she was used to it by now. It was always the same punishment; a few hits with a thick yard stick. Most of the time in the face.

  “This is nothing for her,” Ryker said.

  “What about the Spout?” Laiken asked.

  Only one other person had gotten one of those, but that person had never come back.

  Alloy wound up, bringing his arm as far back as he could, and swung The Stick fast and hard on Taryn’s nose, which began gushing blood. Taryn would normally have put it back in place, but seeing as her hands were tied, that was not going to happen. Blood was dripping all over the front of her gray T-shirt, all the way down her gray cargo pants, and onto the floor.

  “How much trouble do you think I would get in if I went up and snapped her nose back in place?” Ryker asked.

  “That’s when she'd hate you,” Laiken answered.

  “Yeah, she is pretty proud.”

  “I will now have Ms. Tracker come down and give the punishment for her outburst,” Alloy said into the mic. Tracker walked down the steps to the center of the room and grabbed The Stick from the Master.

  “Who's she?” Ryker asked.

  “Wasn’t she the new member that was brought in last month?” Laiken asked.

  Taryn whispered through the blood with a smile, “Make it a good one.”

  Tracker pulled her long red hair back into a ponytail and brought The Stick back to aim. The room was dead silent as Tracker brought it back around. Crack! The Stick broke in half when it hit Taryn’s cheek. Tracker looked bewildered as she held up half of The Stick to Alloy.

  “How the hell did you manage that, Track?” Taryn asked. She had a huge welt on her cheek that was full of splinters. Still smiling, she winked at Ryker and Laiken.

  “Well, looks like we may have a new friend,” Ryker said.

  “Thank you, Tracker,” Alloy said taking both pieces of The Stick. “Now we will get on with the Spouts. There will be two of them. One for Ryker Stills and one for Laiken Haster. Guards, would you please get three chairs. Place one for Taryn to sit in and the other two for her friends, so they can watch close up.”

  “Oh this should be fun,” Laiken said as the guards set up the chairs. Taryn sat in hers and the boys left the stands and sat in theirs.

  “Mrs. Garn, please tie these boys to their chairs. I have a feeling they aren’t going to like what they're about to see,” Alloy said.

  “I don’t think that'll be necessary,” Taryn said glaring at her friends. “They can sit still.”

  “Alright, we’ll see. If either of them gets out of his chair, we will add another Spout.” Alloy said.

  “Have fun,” Ryker said to Taryn.

  Laiken punched him in the arm and glared. “This isn’t funny!”

  “Calm down Laik, it’s fine,” Taryn said with a smile.

  “Alright enough chat. Let’s get on with this. You’re wasting working time,” the Master said.

  Ryker sat in his chair with his arms crossed and gave a small yawn.

  “Are we boring you, Ryker?” Alloy asked.

  “No, not at all,” Ryker responded sarcastically.

  Laiken just shook his head and looked at Taryn. She smiled back at him.

  “Well, this next part will be interesting for everyone. Bring out the phials and syringes.” Alloy said. “Let me explain what will happen. I will inject this green liquid into a vein. It will quickly take over her body, slowly killing her. When she is on the brink of death, I will inject the yellow liquid to bring her back. Since she has two friends, this process will be repeated twice.”

  This was the first time Taryn’s smile faded and was replaced with genuine fear. Again the crowd erupted in anger. Ryker shot up out of his chair.

  “Ryker, sit!” Taryn hissed.

  “I advise you to listen to your friend, unless you would like me to add another Spout,” Alloy said.

  Ryker sat back down, cursing under his breath. The students again went quiet.

  Master Alloy took the green phial and a syringe from the guards and drew out the amount. Taryn was sweating like crazy.

  “Not so tough now, are we Ms. Bicks?” Alloy said with an evil grin.

  “I’m gonna kill him,” Ryker said to Laiken under his breath.

  “Shh,” Laiken hissed.

  Master Alloy grabbed Taryn’s arm and stuck the needle in a vein in the wrist. She didn’t flinch but could immediately feel the effects of the poison. Her arm went slack and she coughed up some blood. Her throat felt like it was on fire.

  Ryker was white-knuckling the arms of the chair.

  Taryn’s body felt like it was being torched. She fell forward off her chair onto her knees and coughed up blood for what felt like forever. Ryker was about to get up again, but Taryn looked at him with warning eyes and shook her head.

  Her breathing was slowing, and she fell over to her side. The blood had stopped coming. She lay on the floor seizing, each breath taking longer to register.

  “Stop it!” Laiken yelled.

  “Do you think she has learned her lesson?” Alloy asked. “Let’s see. Give me the yellow phial.” He filled the syringe with yellow liquid and injected it into the same vein. It took about five minutes of dead silence for it to take effect. Taryn’s breathing began to return to normal, and she stopped shaking. She lay there for a few minutes before pushing herself up. She did not bother wiping the blood from around her mouth.

  “Now Taryn, what is your opinion of this school?” Alloy asked.

  “Please don’t be a smartass,” Ryker said under his breath.

  Taryn spat at him and immediately went into a coughing fit.

  Laiken sighed. “And there it is,” he said.

  “Well that is quite the opinion Ms. Bicks. I think we will have to up the dosage to change your mind,” Master Alloy said.

  Tracker yelled from the stands, “Don’t give in! Remember your opinions, Taryn.”

  “Shut up!” Ryker yelled back.

  “I guess all these people like seeing you get punished for them,” Alloy said calmly. “Now then, we will move on to injection number two.”

  Master Alloy loaded the syringe, grabbed Taryn’s other arm, and injected it. This one was a little slower to take effect. The crowd sat in silence before anything happened. Then Taryn let out a heart-wrenching groan through gritted teeth and doubled over in pain. She had tried her hardest not to let it out but could not suppress it. She felt her insides being flattened even though nothing was touching her. It was all Ryker and Laiken could do just to stay in their seats. The pain became so intense that she threw up. It was mostly blood, but it was not something the younger members should not have had to watch.

  “I told you they would stay in their seats,” Taryn said in between blood vomits. She had tears streaming down her face and could not stop coughing blood. Without warning she went stiff and fell to the floor. Everyone gasped and stood up.

  “Coward!” Ryker yelled. He grabbed his chair and threw it sideways. “You damn coward.”

  “Oh, I would watch what you say for the sake of your friend here,” Alloy responded.

  Laiken grabbed Ryker and forced him down on the bleachers.

  “Stop it, you’re just making it worse,” Laiken said.

  “At least bring her back!” Ryker yelled at Master Alloy.

  �
��Why would I want to do that? Cut the head off the snake...,” Alloy quoted.

  “You can’t just outright kill her. It’s in the rules!” Tracker yelled.

  “Well, I guess if I want to keep my operation running I will have to follow the rules,” Alloy said. He grabbed the yellow-filled syringe and injected it into Taryn’s arm. When she didn’t move for several minutes, Ryker was worried she had been gone too long. The whole auditorium sat in silence waiting for the motionless Taryn to move.

  “Come on Tair,” Laiken whispered.

  At that moment Taryn took in a huge gasp of air and started coughing. There was still blood coming from the cough, but it was not as bad.

  “I think we have wasted enough time today. If anyone sees fit to follow any more of Ms. Bicks' opinions, this will continue until she is eventually eradicated,” Master Alloy said, ending the ceremony and dismissing everyone back to their sectors. He left the room with the teachers and guards. The different sectors filed out leaving Taryn lying on the floor with Ryker and Laiken at her side. Ryker rolled her onto her back, placed her head in his lap, and stroked her hair.

  “Did you learn your lesson?” Ryker asked.

  “What do you think,” Taryn said hazily.

  “I knew your downfall would be being a smartass,” Ryker said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Taryn choked and then went into a coughing fit.

  “Take it easy Tair,” Laiken said.

  “We should probably go back to work or we’ll have to do this again,” Taryn said, struggling to sit up.

  BACK AT THE BUILDING SECTOR no one was working. They were all crowded in a circle listening to someone talk.

  “We should have the right to have our own opinions,” Tracker was saying.